The Sibthorp Trust

The Sibthorp Trust was set up as a consequence of a generous bequest in the will of Miss Mary Sibthorp in 1991 and is managed by a Board of Trustees in association with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Mary Sibthorp was a remarkable woman who was Director of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies and greatly concerned with the wise use of natural resources and their international dimensions. A specific aim of the trust is to promote the study and discussion of key environmental issues through the commissioning of workshops, seminars or study groups and to publish the results of such activities as the ‘Sibthorp Papers’.

The Trust has organised and part-funded four Sibthorp Seminars to date (1996, 2000, 2007 and 2011). All have been successful in meeting the original objectives for establishment of the Trust, under the terms of the will of Miss Mary Sibthorp.

In particular the output of the First Sibthorp Seminar has played a key role in advancing the thinking on biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Specifically the seminar and subsequent publication “Ecosystem Management: Questions for Science and Society” has been a major contribution to the elaboration of the ecosystem approach as the framework for implementation of the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The subsequent work of the Trust has continued to build on this and related themes.

The UK has voted to leave the European Union, launching the country into a period of uncertainty as a new relationship with Europe and the world is negotiated. The EU frameworks that have underpinned much of our environmental policy and legislation – from agriculture to protected areas – are no longer assured.

Yet the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss will lose none of their urgency. What will environmental policy in the UK look like outside of the European Union? What threats and opportunities does ‘Brexit’ pose for the environment? How will we tackle international challenges under a new political agreement?

Questions were put to our panel of leading politicians, chaired by leading broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby.

The panellists included:

Kerry McCarthy MP, Labour, previously Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs